Parallel (A Virtual Gamer's Story) [Vol.1 - Vol.4 Complete]

Chapter 2: Exposition, Exposition

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Suzuki's eyes twitched as a pleasant scent drifted into his nose. The young man groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He was greeted by the familiar crossed sword painting on the ceiling above. 'Wait, didn't I erase one sword this morning?'

'This morning? Wait, why am I in bed? I should be in scho—'

Suzuki's eyes went wide as the memories flooded in. "Fuck!" Suzuki cursed as he jumped off the bed and warily scanned the room. This left him even more perplexed as the room was identical to his. The walls had the exact same dirty red paint. His study table and chair were both in the correct position, and even his treadmill was in the right spot. If there was one change, it was the coffin-like device that lay next to the bed.

Suzuki recognized this device. It was the latest Virtual Drive on the market, named the Full-Body Virtual Drive. It was capable of extending the time users spent in the virtual world by providing the necessary nutrients needed for survival to the human body while its user was in the virtual world.

Upon closer inspection, Suzuki realized the room was larger than the one at his home. That explained why there was space left for the Virtual Drive. This revelation did nothing to help assuage his unease. Why the hell would someone not only kidnap him but also go through the trouble of creating a room near identical to his?

Suzuki had no intention of waiting for whoever was responsible. He walked over to the room's door and realized it was an automatic door. The young man shook his head as the door slowly slid open, and impatiently squeezed through once there was enough room. Suzuki frowned as he found himself in a hallway that stretched to both his left and right with exits at both ends.

"This way I go, this way I die, so I will go this other way," Suzuki chanted while alternatively pointing to his left and right. The chant ended with his hand pointed at the left hallway, so he ran towards the right. He could only pray he did not choose the wrong path.

Suzuki noticed several doors with name tags on them as he ran through the hallway. 'Nera Gray.' 'Yuto Daichi.' 'Akira Riku.' There seemed to be no real order to the names, and he was suddenly struck with a thought. He paused and backtracked to his own door, and sure enough, his name was displayed on a tag next to his door.

"What the...?" Suzuki pondered out loud. However, his current priority was to find a way out of this place, so he resumed his dash for the exit. Suzuki slowly opened the door, so as not to alarm anyone who might be on the other side. When no alarms went off, he peered into the next room and saw it was a small hall with two elevators, a door directly opposite his, and another entry that led to a sort of common room visible through glass walls.

Suzuki walked into the hall and noticed an extra door with 'stairs' marked on it. The emergency exit. This was good. The elevator posed too much risk, so the young man opted to go for the staircase where he would have a greater chancing of spotting or hearing any approaching person.

'And people say video-games don't teach you anything.' Suzuki snorted and cautiously opened the door. No one appeared to be taking the stairs, so he ran down, noting at the back of his mind that the sign by the door said he was on the seventh floor.

Suzuki successfully reached the ground floor unnoticed. Here, he paused to catch his breath and think. The stairs went down one level lower, but if the architect was any good, the ground floor should lead him out.

Suzuki decided to test his luck with the ground floor and opened the door. Once again there was no one in sight. Suzuki thanked his lucky stars and inspected the small hallway. Thankfully, it had the same layout as the hall on the seventh floor except for a transparent door through which sunlight flooded in with promises of freedom.